Lessons From Tiger Woods

refuse to be ordinary

Though I wasn’t able to watch Tiger Woods surprise the whole world by winning his 80th championship in Atlanta, the lessons from his journey have not been lost on me.

Tiger started young, learning to golf at the Cypress, California, golf course, which is only 50 yards from my office building. To say Tiger was a child prodigy would be an understatement.

From a young age, he became an athletic sensation and then he became overconfident, cocky, and eventually hit a brick wall.

I am a firm believer that what’s happening in your life can manifest itself in your body. So, if you’re thinking a lot, you might get a headache. If you are feeling a lot of pressure at work, you might start to have poor posture and “feel the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

So, I wonder if the troubles that Tiger had in his personal life manifested in his physical maladies.

After reading about his win on Sunday, I surmised these lessons:

When you want to accomplish a goal, the most effective way to achieve it is through laser focus. Professional athletes like Tiger practice every day, at least eight hours a day, and have coaches to advise them (even when they are champions). Practice makes permanent.

Don’t be overly confident to the point of arrogance. Winning easily doesn’t guarantee future success. Don’t assume your current success will continue forever. Being humble is a great attribute.

Your professional success does not mean you automatically will have success in your personal life. It’s imperative to give the same attention to your personal life as you do to your professional life. (Many of us stumble in our personal lives simply because we don’t put the same type of energy and hard work into it.)

Sometimes you must hit rock bottom before things turn around. Really rock bottom. Think of the personal and physical pain that Tiger suffered. Not to mention the public scrutiny and embarrassment. Most of us don’t have our lives played out and examined like Hollywood stars or athletes do. But we can hit rock bottom, just the same.

When a goal or accomplishment is critically important to you, even after you’ve hit rock bottom, go back to No. 1 above.

Whether or not you play golf, have a lucky shirt color, or have had a physical or mental brick wall you’ve come up against, there are always lessons to be learned from other people’s experiences.

I took up golf about 18 months ago and I wrote about it in May and November of last year. I never appreciated that the game was not really played on grass. It is played in your head. And it really makes you think.